Elkhart officials kicked off construction of a $9M replacement for Fire Station 6, funded from cash reserves

By Clayton Sidenbender
The Elkhart Truth

ELKHART, Ind. — City officials, fire department leaders and community members gathered Monday to break ground on the city’s first new fire station in two decades.

The fire station will replace the old Fire Station 6 located on 1023 Oslo Road and the new station will be located on 2620 Ada Drive.

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According to Fire Chief Rodney Dale , the last station that was built was Fire Station 4 on the corner of Oak and Mishawaka streets.

“We are adding to complement what’s necessary to serve this northeast quadrant relative to our fire department,” Mayor Rod Roberson said. “And it’s important that we add this station, which is why the excitement of firefighters are pretty obvious as well as the administration. You only build fire stations 20, 30 years apart.”

The project will cost about $9 million. It is expected to be completed by September 2026 .

Despite potential financial challenges in the coming years due to state tax reform measures, the city had saved cash reserves for the project, Roberson said.

“This one has been in the funnel for a minute and we had already saved,” Roberson said. “Our city, with respect to reserves, is in some of best financial shape out of cities in the state, and so we have adequate reserves. We also have done really, really well given that our budgets have been very strong over the last couple of years. We put together a really strong plan to be financially prudent, so we didn’t have to borrow or go into deeper debt in order to do this station.”

Fire Station 6 and the Hively Avenue Overpass projects will be unaffected by Senate Enrolled Act 1, Roberson said in a news conference last week. However, other projects will either be delayed or canceled due to financial constraints caused by the legislation, he said.

The fire department is already in the process of hiring the personnel for the new station, Dale said. The station will also have a fairly new fire engine.

“It’s going to serve our residents better,” Dale said.

Ambulance services have to come from Central Fire Station because the current Fire Station 6 cannot house an ambulance vehicle. The new station will help with more efficient response times for both ambulances and fire engines, Dale said.

More bays will also be available to house fire engines. The current Fire Station 6 only has one bay.

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